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Top 12 Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers

Seeing your child struggling with reading is heartbreaking. Whether it’s the ache in deciphering letters or frustration with overall reading comprehension, most parents are searching for the right approach to help their kids. As an experienced reading tutor in Brighterly, I’m here to show some top reading strategies for struggling readers. 

Key points

• You can adjust the reading strategy based on the level of your kid and their interest. Active listeners can try reading with audiobooks, while kids who more easily engage with visuals can find printed materials more helpful to them.
• Nothing beats the tutoring effectiveness among the strategies to help struggling readers. It works for kids on different learning levels, and it’s the tutor’s task to adjust the learning plan to keep them engaged.
• Brighterly reading and math platform offers a free demo lesson for parents to see how private tutoring can help their struggling children.

Which reading strategy is most effective for a struggling reader?

1:1 personalized tutoring is the most effective way to overcome reading struggles and support your child’s reading growth. Private reading tutors help to identify the exact problems, adjust their methods to your kid’s unique needs, and are able to support their reading progress in a long-term perspective. 

It will work separately or in combination with other strategies listed below.

12 reading strategies for struggling readers

• Start personalized tutoring
• Practice with worksheets on phonics and word patterns
• Surround them with useful printed materials
• Invest in reading quests with prizes
• Add a rereading practice
• Set a separate time for reading assignments
• Adjust their library with interesting stories
• Read books aloud and ask them to follow
• Involve a tracker or a pointer in reading
• Find audiobooks to supplement texts
• Add tech into their reading practice
• Set up a reading club for their peers

#1 How to help struggling readers using personalized tutoring

Best for: Struggling readers of all levels

About the strategy: Helps to determine the core reason for struggle, tackle this problem and its symptoms, and support the future reading success of your child.

3 simple steps to find your reading tutor on Brighterly

1. Book a free trial lesson. Get started on the Brighterly tutoring platform and take a free 1:1 reading lesson to check the service.
2. Get your reading plan. After a test lesson, a Brighterly expert will understand your kid’s struggles better, identify the best approach for them, and match you with a relevant tutor.
3. Choose your schedule and start. You can choose the most comfortable schedule for you for consistent practice at affordable price.

Benefits of Brighterly tutoring platform

• Lessons aligned with the Common Core standards
• Personalized reading program with a variety of free materials

Lessons aligned with the Common Core standards

With Brighterly, you can be sure that each lesson and evaluation will help them at school. Once you decide to book a reading class, a Brighterly tutor will help with improving grades and preparing for standardized tests. 

Personalized reading program with a variety of free materials

Reading program from Brighterly is never the same. The service adjusts to your child’s temper, personal pace, and struggles. Tutors carefully guide kids by teaching them to read with ease and fun.

To determine the current reading level and struggles of your kid, Brighterly tutors use customized tests and reading worksheets, among other tools. If you want to try them for yourself, all of them are free to download from the Brighterly website.

 

#2 Worksheets as reading intervention strategies for struggling readers

Best for: Students who need to strengthen foundational reading skills

About strategy: Reading worksheet structure is highly useful for developing phonemic awareness and practicing reading problems step by step. They let your kid dedicate enough time to each topic with drills, games, and specified exercises. For a more customized approach, you can combine exercises from several worksheets.

How to choose the best reading worksheet topic

1. Vowel worksheets facilitate easier identification and memorization of words.
2. Practicing rhymes is useful in determining similar sound patterns. 
3. Worksheets on sight words help to practice the most common  words to improve reading speed.

#3 How to help a struggling reader by printing materials

Best for: Kids who get easily distracted by colorful images

About strategy: Put colorful printed materials with instructions about the biggest reading struggle in the room or in the classroom. The more fun and interesting they look, the higher the chances that kids may approach their struggle with ease and curiosity.

How to help a child struggling with reading using printed visuals

• By uniting phonemic and printed recognition, visuals help to develop a stronger connection between reading and seeing information.
• Once introduced as a mix of instructional prints, posters introduce variety and fun into reading practice.
• Colorful materials attract attention, reducing the power of possible distractions from their phones.

 #4 Gamified reading strategies for struggling readers

Best for: Active kids who learn best through engaging and fun activities.

About strategy:  If  you  are  searching  for  ways how make reading fun for struggling readers, reading apps are great for this. Alternatively, you can invent your own quests to engage your kid and turn their reading struggle into a game. Once used as a strategy for struggling readers, these tools help to build a strong association between reading and having fun.

Struggling to read? Use games to enjoy the benefits of reading

• Playful activities with even symbolic prizes create a very rewarding environment to practice foundational skills.
• Games are good at putting theoretical knowledge and skills into a real-life practice simulation.
• You can use reading games as a bonding activity, especially if you choose to invent your own quests instead of relying on online technology.

#5 Kids struggling with reading comprehension & rereading approach

Best for: Kids struggling with attention deficit or disorder. 

About strategy: Rereading turns into an effective strategy for struggling readers once a student reads the same material multiple times while being supervised by a parent or teacher. It works well for young pupils who struggle with fluency or slow reading.

Helping struggling readers with rereading practice: Benefits

• Rereading helps to overcome the most common reading struggles and move forward to getting the main idea of the text.
• Guided rereading gently improves basic literacy capabilities at a pace that is comfortable for your kid.
• Once introduced with patience and care, rereading creates a safe space to make mistakes, learn, try again, and succeed in reading.

#6 Activities for struggling readers: Set aside extra time and pick focused reading tasks

Best for: Children who already have some reading background.

About strategy: At times, all your kid needs is more time to practice. Thus, setting regular time slots dedicated to reading can help tackle their reading problems. This tool can be used, for instance, to help your child establish their inner reading process, increase their vocabulary, and make reading a part of their daily routine. It will therefore help to improve fluency in general as well as speed, accuracy, and comprehension.

List of reading strategies for struggling readers during extra practice

• Curated practice of a separate skill under explicit instruction, like allocating at least 20-30 minutes per day to reading, every day.
• Guided lessons that are followed by independent reading blocks to let kids incorporate new skills.
• Careful intervention into the home reading practice of your kid to guide, motivate, and explain to them the hard concepts.

#7 Easiest strategies for parents to help struggling readers: Finding more interesting stories

Best for: Kids who love stories in general but not the texts they read.

About strategy: If your kid feels confident with reading random things but struggles with textbooks you give them, most likely, the stories they read for learning don’t excite them. Once you invest some time and attention in curating a more relevant library for them, the struggle with reading may naturally disappear.

Helping struggling readers by selecting more interesting stories

1. Let them make their own choices in the bookstore or library, and be open to accepting what feels interesting to them at that moment. 
2. Offer your kid books based on the topic they like, even if the book is considered too easy or hard for their current reading level.
3. If your kid doesn’t show interest in any particular topic yet, pay attention to what naturally excites them. Then, think about the possible books that can support their interest or help them understand their passion more deeply.

#8 How to help struggling readers at home by reading them books

Best for: struggling readers who highly rely on parent support in all their activities

About strategy: Reading aloud is the most direct way to demonstrate support for your kid and overcome their struggle together.

Best teaching strategies to help struggling readers: Why to read books aloud?

• Active support from a parent or a teacher helps to combat low self-esteem problems that affect reading capabilities. 
• Reading together builds a secure, encouraging environment for honing listening skills and paying attention.
• Asking your kid to repeat after you can if they need extra attention, a better explanation, and safe repetition to absorb information and master the skill.

#9 Helping struggling readers by tracking words with a pointer or a finger

Best for: Early readers transitioning from reading with parents

About strategy: If you want to encourage your kid to read them on their own after reading them books, show them how to read with a pointer or their finger. This is one of the most comfortable transitions from curated to independent reading.

Steps to start using a pointer or a finger while reading

1. Find the tool and the color your kid likes the most.
2. Teach them to follow the line they are reading with their finger, pen, or other sharp object.
3. Once they get more confident, offer to play with how many words they can read within a set period of time.

#10 Audiobooks as one of the reading strategies to help struggling readers

Best for: Kids who learn through listening (be that music, voices, or noises)

About strategy: Listening to audiobooks is a great way to work with written information yet remove the barrier of decoding difficulties. Once an audiobook is combined with the written version of a text, this combination can help your kid establish the connection between spoken words with their written forms. 

Why are audiobooks among the strategies to help struggling readers improve reading?

• Audiobooks eliminate a significant amount of cognitive load for your kid, which may help them cope with their reading struggles
• Listening opens the doors to getting more complex subjects, even for kids with low decoding skills.
• Struggling readers can meet rich, sophisticated words and sentence structures, which can boost their reading fluency and self-esteem. 

#11 Technology as one of the most effective reading strategies for struggling readers 

Best for: Tech-savvy kids

About strategy: If your kid cannot stop using their phones instead of reading, try using this obsession to help them truly overcome their reading struggles (instead of avoiding them). If chosen wisely, tech can improve your kid’s reading level, along with boosting their digital literacy, creativity, and independent learning habits.

How to determine which tech option is best for your struggling reader

1. Look for interactive apps, online platforms, coding games, or virtual field trips. 
2. Test them together to find the most appropriate one.
3. After a while, reevaluate the effectiveness of the chosen tool and replace it with another tech or method if needed. 

#12 Reading clubs and programs as great reading strategies for struggling readers

Best for: Kids who want to engage in the activities with their peers

About strategy: Reading club is a great way to elevate the list of interesting books for your kid as part of a summer program with their peers. You can make it custom or test the best reading program for kids where reading club activities are part of the curriculum.

Peer clubs and programs for struggling readers: Benefits

• Social activities like clubs and programs make reading more attractive to your kid as an activity that their peers do and have fun with. 
• Having a reading club with rewards and special events makes reading part of your kids’ social life and identity. This increases the chances they will naturally keep up with practicing this skill.
• Reading clubs create a supportive community environment for kids to overcome reading struggles with their peers.

What are the best reading strategies for struggling readers elementary level?

At the elementary level, the best strategy is to dedicate as much time as they need to building basic phonic awareness. Hiring a reading tutor, dedicating extra reading time regularly, and asking your kid to repeat after your reading are the most effective strategies here. With them, you can be sure you invest enough time and effort in building a strong reading foundation.

What are the most efficient reading strategies for struggling readers middle school level?

Reading struggles at the middle school level are mostly connected with specific gaps in foundational skills and comprehension abilities. Thus, you’ll most likely need a curated tutoring practice that includes worksheets, attentive rereading, and visual or gamified supplements. To maintain engagement, make sure you apply age-appropriate and high-interest tools.

What are the most effective reading strategies for struggling readers high school level?

In high school, readers mostly struggle with upper-level reading challenges and an overall perception of reading as something boring and unnecessary. To help them, try hiring a professional tutor, improving their reading list with more interesting stories, and enrolling them in a summer reading club or program.

12 reading strategies for struggling readers: Which is the best?

Reading struggles are common for kids of any age. They may feel devastating, but with the right strategies and reading programs for struggling readers, they are not that hard to overcome.

The exact decision on a strategy should depend on what your kid finds most comfortable for them. Some children enjoy games, quality time with parents, and listening more than other activities, and you can use this knowledge to engage them in reading more. 

When a student is an accurate but slow reader, which of the following practices is most effective?

• Elementary level: Try games, reading aloud, and finding a reading buddy for your partner.
• Middle level: Tackle the exact reading problems with curated worksheets, extra reading time, and appropriate printed materials.
• High level: Work on how your kid perceives reading by showing them more interesting books, engaging summer programs, and high-quality learning materials.

All the strategies in the list work great. But in my opinion, tutoring beats them all. After hiring a tutor, you won’t spend time wandering between tools and approaches. You’ll just get your kid a reading partner who will make them enjoy the books.

Book reading lesson for free with Brigherly. After testing the service, you can decide when and how to practice to overcome your kid’s reading struggles consistently.